The Crimson harriers, debilitated by injury and illness for most of the year, finally ran a solid team race and smashed hapless Brown at Providence yesterday, 17-47.

A trio of Captain Jim Keefe, Stein Rafto, and Bill Muller copped the top three positions to assure Harvard of its first victory of the year and extended the string of Crimson victories over the Bruins to nine years.

Coach Bill McCurdy said the fine performance was "a tribute to Harvard's intellectual capacity. The course was so difficult to follow that we couldn't concentrate on how tired we were."

Tough Course

Keefe, running with the remnants of a head cold, had little difficulty navigating what one teammate termed "the hardest course at Brown." Keefe set the course record of 24:05.8 without really extending himself and he helped pull freshman Rafto to an excellent clocking.

The race began slowly because no one was willing to push the pace. A pattern soon began to develop, however, as Harvard bunched most of its runners at the front of the pack.

At the three mile mark, the Crimson had the meet under control with nine of the top thirteen positions. The three leaders had opened a small gap on John Barlow of Brown, who was trailed closely by Harvard's Brian Dunn and Dave Nemazee.

The flat terrain of the last two miles produced few significant developments. Keefe glided to victory and Rafto overtook Muller with a powerful last mile. Barlow grabbed fourth before Dunn and Nemazee crossed the finish line. Tom Phillips finished eighth to close out the Crimson scoring.

Puffing on his first victory cigar of the year, McCurdy expressed satisfaction with the meet. "We ran well because we were right up there at the beginning. Most of our guys were running with or ahead of Brown's number three man."

McCurdy said he was especially pleased with the improvement in two of his runners. "Nemazee was a reall surprise since he is only a freshman," he said. "And Wayne Curtis ran far better than he has all year."

J.V.s

In the J.V. meet, the varsity of tiny Johnson and Wales easily outran the Harvard and Brown J.V. squads. Led by Ed Blades, Harvard defeated the Bruins for second place. The Crimson was not at full strength, however, because three freshmen ran for the varsity.

The harriers hope to continue their winning ways next Saturday, when they tangle with a ruggled Cornell squad at Franklin Park.